Hookah lounges in Auburn Hills will be facing a new set of restrictions following the approval of an ordinance regulating smoking lounges.

The Auburn Hills City Council passed Ordinance No. 13-857 which sets consistent standards for the licensing and operation of smoking lounges within the city, including filing of annual applications for permits, fees, limiting hours of operation to between 8 a.m. and 12 a.m. and enforcing fines for violations.

The city previously placed a 180-day moratorium on new smoking lounges following increased reports of underage customers and police calls in the area immediately surrounding the city’s two hookah bars.

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“It’s not been a huge, taxing problem on us, but we’ve had problems,” said Lt. Ryan Gagnon of the Auburn Hills Police Department. “It’s similar to problems you’d find at bars, however with the smoking lounges you get more of a younger crowd.”

Gagnon said that the moratorium period was used to research what other communities had done to address many of the same issues, leading the city to adopt a similar ordinance.

The Troy City Council passed an ordinance in May limiting operating hours of the city’s hookah lounges to no later than midnight. The move was in response to a shooting incident in the parking lot of the Mist Hookah Lounge.

The city’s two current hookah lounges have 180 days to comply with the licensing portion of the ordinance while restrictions on hours goes into effect immediately.

“We hope that it will make businesses comply with basic standards of good business practices,” Gagnon said, “and the public will be informed of what the regulations are when they go into an establishment like this. We expect (customers) to be mature and act appropriate, not be disorderly or cause disturbances.”

Exhale Hookah Lounge owner Rimi Hirmiz said he would prefer to learn more about the specifics of the ordinance before offering comment.